Richard Haviland
@rfhaviland.bsky.social
Former civil servant, enjoying the freedom to speak my mind. Published in Times, Byline Times, Bylines Scotland, West Country Voices. Member of European Movement in Scotland.
Pinned
Richard Haviland
@rfhaviland.bsky.social
· Sep 15
Starmer’s moral cowardice on refugees
The Labour leadership is tacitly accepting, and reflecting, Farage’s perverted notion of patriotism
bylines.scot
‘If slavery were invented today, would (Labour ministers) call it ‘impractical’?
If torture were invented today, would they call it ‘ineffective’?
If child labour were invented today, would they call it ‘poor value for money’?’
My piece for @bylines.scot
bylines.scot/politics/sta...
If torture were invented today, would they call it ‘ineffective’?
If child labour were invented today, would they call it ‘poor value for money’?’
My piece for @bylines.scot
bylines.scot/politics/sta...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
I’m beyond proud of Peter Ettedgui speaking out about Farage and the vile antisemitic abuse he endured. I first heard Peter’s story nearly 20 years ago when Farage was a virtual nobody. It’s not a hit job. Just the truth
November 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
I’m beyond proud of Peter Ettedgui speaking out about Farage and the vile antisemitic abuse he endured. I first heard Peter’s story nearly 20 years ago when Farage was a virtual nobody. It’s not a hit job. Just the truth
Reposted by Richard Haviland
“It seems free speech only exists for people who agree with them.” Reform UK's legal threats against Welsh news service @nation.cymru hints at the party taking a more aggressive approach to the #UK media. Read Daniel Boffey's analysis:
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reform’s ‘Trumpian’ legal threats hint at more aggressive approach to media
Ultimatums sent to publications appear to intensify as Nigel Farage’s party rises in polls
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:38 PM
“It seems free speech only exists for people who agree with them.” Reform UK's legal threats against Welsh news service @nation.cymru hints at the party taking a more aggressive approach to the #UK media. Read Daniel Boffey's analysis:
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 AM
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Someone really needs to explain the Striesand Effect to the BBC. And also tell them to stop being so pathetic.
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Someone really needs to explain the Striesand Effect to the BBC. And also tell them to stop being so pathetic.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Just a jaw-dropping paragraph in Trevor Phillips's column for The Times.
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
November 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Just a jaw-dropping paragraph in Trevor Phillips's column for The Times.
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
This is how epidemiologists say fuck around and found out. It is horrifying to think about how many people RFK will kill
2/ so many gutting moment but this was among the first, from one of the world’s leading scientists on vaccines and immunology:
November 24, 2025 at 2:48 PM
This is how epidemiologists say fuck around and found out. It is horrifying to think about how many people RFK will kill
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Turns out the media & most of Parliament is as out of touch with reality as Twitter. Dear England.
Why do people think England flags have been raised on lampposts?
White adults
National pride: 26%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 49%
Both: 19%
Ethnic minority adults
National pride: 15%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 55%
Both: 20%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
White adults
National pride: 26%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 49%
Both: 19%
Ethnic minority adults
National pride: 15%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 55%
Both: 20%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
November 22, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Turns out the media & most of Parliament is as out of touch with reality as Twitter. Dear England.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Home Office: How dare people say we are acting like the far-right?
Also the Home Office: These far-right graphics look great, let's copy them.
Also the Home Office: These far-right graphics look great, let's copy them.
November 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Home Office: How dare people say we are acting like the far-right?
Also the Home Office: These far-right graphics look great, let's copy them.
Also the Home Office: These far-right graphics look great, let's copy them.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
At Labour’s conference, Keir Starmer promised his government would “fight with everything we have” against those pushing racism and the idea of two-tier Britishness.
Now it is the clear and stated policy rationale of his government that the racists were correct and must be appeased.
Now it is the clear and stated policy rationale of his government that the racists were correct and must be appeased.
It’s just nuts. Even if you accept Labour’s policy diagnosis, we “lost control” of our borders, and concern about immigration was rising long before the alarming rise of racism. The big change on racism has been we traded an anti-racist government for one that is at best Trappist on it.
I find insane that shabana mahmood is going out there and saying "white british people cannot be asked to accept too many of us outsiders, it is not in their nature, and their pushback against all of us is to be placated". What???
November 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM
At Labour’s conference, Keir Starmer promised his government would “fight with everything we have” against those pushing racism and the idea of two-tier Britishness.
Now it is the clear and stated policy rationale of his government that the racists were correct and must be appeased.
Now it is the clear and stated policy rationale of his government that the racists were correct and must be appeased.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Reform's former Welsh leader gets ten years for being bribed by Russia to bsck the Kremlin line while one of Nigel Farage’s MEPs for Ukip.
Others in ukip group spoke sympathetically of Kremlin arguments, including Farage. It is possible his were sincere pro-Russia views
go.bsky.app/redirect?u=h...
Others in ukip group spoke sympathetically of Kremlin arguments, including Farage. It is possible his were sincere pro-Russia views
go.bsky.app/redirect?u=h...
November 21, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reform's former Welsh leader gets ten years for being bribed by Russia to bsck the Kremlin line while one of Nigel Farage’s MEPs for Ukip.
Others in ukip group spoke sympathetically of Kremlin arguments, including Farage. It is possible his were sincere pro-Russia views
go.bsky.app/redirect?u=h...
Others in ukip group spoke sympathetically of Kremlin arguments, including Farage. It is possible his were sincere pro-Russia views
go.bsky.app/redirect?u=h...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Nathan Gill's social media bio...
They claim to love the country they would sell down the river for a stuffed brown envelope.
He was the head of Reform in Wales.
How do you think Reform would react if any other party leader had been found to have committed such crimes?
They claim to love the country they would sell down the river for a stuffed brown envelope.
He was the head of Reform in Wales.
How do you think Reform would react if any other party leader had been found to have committed such crimes?
November 21, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Nathan Gill's social media bio...
They claim to love the country they would sell down the river for a stuffed brown envelope.
He was the head of Reform in Wales.
How do you think Reform would react if any other party leader had been found to have committed such crimes?
They claim to love the country they would sell down the river for a stuffed brown envelope.
He was the head of Reform in Wales.
How do you think Reform would react if any other party leader had been found to have committed such crimes?
Reposted by Richard Haviland
This is majestically furious and rightly so. In the face of far right savagery, a lot of people who think themselves reasonable can’t even manage the moral basics
this week's newsletter is titled "aren't you tired of feeling insane all the time?" and I think it speaks for itself
it is also free to read
youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
it is also free to read
youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
November 21, 2025 at 11:45 AM
This is majestically furious and rightly so. In the face of far right savagery, a lot of people who think themselves reasonable can’t even manage the moral basics
Reposted by Richard Haviland
This is a clown-car government elected on a seriousness ticket iandunt.substack.com/p/a-clown-go...
November 21, 2025 at 12:08 PM
This is a clown-car government elected on a seriousness ticket iandunt.substack.com/p/a-clown-go...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
A powerful and important thread by @dankaszeta.bsky.social on what harsher immigration policies really mean. The suffering and pain the UK system already causes should be enough for anyone with an ounce of humanity to be calling for a more tolerant system, not supporting making it worse
I have zero tolerance for the “well, I guess we have no choice with immigrants but to deport them or lock them up if the paperwork goes wrong”
November 20, 2025 at 10:40 PM
A powerful and important thread by @dankaszeta.bsky.social on what harsher immigration policies really mean. The suffering and pain the UK system already causes should be enough for anyone with an ounce of humanity to be calling for a more tolerant system, not supporting making it worse
Reposted by Richard Haviland
This ties into my recent grumble about the phrases “virtue signalling”, “pearl-clutching” and “purity tests”: the notion that all expressions of moral principle or disapproval are just a performance to impress others - that morality itself is phoney
When they say Trump calling a reporter "piggy" is "just being honest," they are revealing a key feature of the reactionary mind: it believes, at a deep brainstem level, that *everyone* is awful & selfish & ugly on the inside. Everyone just suppresses it out of fear of social disapproval. Not Trump!
November 20, 2025 at 9:19 PM
This ties into my recent grumble about the phrases “virtue signalling”, “pearl-clutching” and “purity tests”: the notion that all expressions of moral principle or disapproval are just a performance to impress others - that morality itself is phoney
Cummings contravened all sorts of codes from the day he took the job.
Covid Inquiry finds Cummings created a culture of fear and likely contravened the SPAD code.
November 20, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Cummings contravened all sorts of codes from the day he took the job.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
That American politics went off the rails after Barack Obama and British ethnonationalism has reared its head after Rishi Sunak is the real tell about how committed some people are to integration and post racial politics.
A country where Sadiq Khan can lead London, Humza Yousaf can lead Scotland, and Rishi Sunak can lead Britain is a country where the racists had *lost*. So much of this vicious bile has come directly after that and almost no one seems to draw the connection
November 19, 2025 at 5:02 PM
That American politics went off the rails after Barack Obama and British ethnonationalism has reared its head after Rishi Sunak is the real tell about how committed some people are to integration and post racial politics.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Go on Shabana. Learn from Denmark how to lose elections girl.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Social Democrats in Denmark suffer sweeping election losses
PM Mette Frederiksen’s centre-left party loses control of Copenhagen for first time in more than 100 years
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Go on Shabana. Learn from Denmark how to lose elections girl.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
The thing that constantly amazes me is that there is a small but measurable % of the public that is suspicious that, somewhere somehow somebody is having an UNAUTHORISED GOOD TIME
November 19, 2025 at 12:05 PM
The thing that constantly amazes me is that there is a small but measurable % of the public that is suspicious that, somewhere somehow somebody is having an UNAUTHORISED GOOD TIME
Reposted by Richard Haviland
The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
November 19, 2025 at 11:52 AM
The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford
November 19, 2025 at 12:12 PM
The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford
This is excellent
~ I grew up in Spain amid a collective amnesia about Franco. It is time we faced up to our dark past | María Ramírez | The Guardian ~
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/19/i-grew-up-in-spain-amid-a-collective-amnesia-about-franco-it-is-time-we-faced-up-to-our-dark-past
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/19/i-grew-up-in-spain-amid-a-collective-amnesia-about-franco-it-is-time-we-faced-up-to-our-dark-past
I grew up in Spain amid a collective amnesia about Franco. It is time we faced up to our dark past | María Ramírez | The Guardian
This week marks 50 years of Spanish democracy, but the failure to talk more about the crimes of the dictatorship leaves us vulnerable, says the journalist María Ramírez
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:27 PM
This is excellent
In which a government source characterises having children as the result of ‘perverse incentives’.
The Labour government does not want to rule out deporting somebody once here as a refugee 16-19 years with a British-born 15 year old child
November 19, 2025 at 9:31 AM
In which a government source characterises having children as the result of ‘perverse incentives’.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Alf Dubs is a 92 year old man who spent his life fighting for refugees, and in particular for refugee children. He fought the Tories tooth and nail during their last three terms, only to see Labour adopt far-right policies on immigration.
“But to use children as a weapon ... I’m lost for words.”
“But to use children as a weapon ... I’m lost for words.”
Labour Peer Who Fled The Nazis Condemns His Party's Immigration Crackdown
Lord Dubs said he was "lost for words".
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Alf Dubs is a 92 year old man who spent his life fighting for refugees, and in particular for refugee children. He fought the Tories tooth and nail during their last three terms, only to see Labour adopt far-right policies on immigration.
“But to use children as a weapon ... I’m lost for words.”
“But to use children as a weapon ... I’m lost for words.”
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Tl;dr - if Labour want to combat racism, they should say racism is wrong, over and over, and act on that belief (e.g. by leaving certain social media sites owned by racists). That would do more to promote anti-racist norms, and protect the interests of Britain's minorities than immigration controls.
November 18, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Tl;dr - if Labour want to combat racism, they should say racism is wrong, over and over, and act on that belief (e.g. by leaving certain social media sites owned by racists). That would do more to promote anti-racist norms, and protect the interests of Britain's minorities than immigration controls.